Hello.
I was out running errands this morning when I stumbled upon a '98 318ti with a "blown engine" for sale. It looked good and I'm sort of handy, so I bought it.
The lady who owned it told me that it was just perfect until it overheated one day and, as she put it, "I melted the engine."
So...I'm guessing I'm dealing with *at least* a blown head gasket, probably a cracked/warped head...and who knows what else.
I'm not going to ask a bunch of lame newbie questions right off the bat...I'll search around a bit first. :wink But, if anyone has any pertinent info. or tips regarding my car's situation, please let me know.

does the motor turn over or not. if not it could've siezed (melted into one piece)rendering at least the cylinders and block completely useless. dont run it but try starting it just to see if it will turn over. if it does, do a compression check and also check for coolant in the cylinders by removing the spark plug of the suspected cylinder one-by-one. obvious coolant spraying out indicates that you have either a blown gasket, a cracked head, or a warped head as you apparently already know. in either case it will be quite costly. however, even in the worst case (being a deep crack through the valve seats) a good engine machine shop can TIG weld it good again and do a valve job for under $400.00. So if your up for the challenge save the $1000.00 labor and get a Haynes or Chilton manual and take the head off youself. if you live in SoCal try Valley Engine in Fountian Valley. I'm actually doing the same exact thing right now to my 93' 318is. good luck

aaainvestor...thanks for the info.
I haven't had a chance to do any sort of diagnostics yet, and the battery is dead. I just had it towed to my house this morning and washed/waxed it.
Looking under the hood, I can see that somebody has removed the spark plugs and cranked the engine (it looks like rusty water was blown out and got everywhere).